As CEO of Online Rewards, Michael has helped FTSE 100 and Fortune 1,000 companies improve their employee engagement scores through the design and development of award-winning employee engagement and recognition programmes. Michael is a frequent speaker at HR tradeshows and industry events. He has contributed editorial content on the topic of employee engagement to HR Magazine, CNBC, and elsewhere.

Michael has helped clients such as British Airways, Macy’s, Yum Brands, Dell, Signet Jewellers, SAP, Federal Reserve Bank, Nielsen Marketing Research, Asia Miles, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Heineken, Nikon, YMCA, Harley Davidson and many others to implement ground-breaking programmes that have been recognised by industry for their innovative approach, whilst helping deliver valued business outcomes for his clients.

Beyond a sense of humour and a very, very Southern accent (think Kangaroos), Michael brings a unique and refreshing perspective to driving employee engagement. He has knowledge and expertise gathered across a decade of building engagement programmes. He will happily explain how to go beyond just points and prizes, or awarding every five years for showing up, and get to the core of how to build meaningful and engaging reward and recognition programmes, whilst explaining what it takes to see them succeed.

Michael is one of the UK's leading experts on non-cash reward and an independent reward consultant through his company – Rewards Consulting Limited. He is an influential author of books in the field of reward strategy, recognition and non-cash reward. His first book, Recognising Performance, was published by the CIPD in 2001. A more recent volume – A Guide to Non-Cash Reward – was released in 2011. Michael's third book, Reward Management, was published by Kogan Page in April 2014 with a 2nd edition published August 2018. Michael has held a number of senior corporate HR and reward roles, the most recent as Director of Reward for Aon covering 16,000 people in the UK and EMEA. He also has ten years' experience as a reward consultant with KPMG and Arthur Andersen. Michael has also been Vice President Reward for the CIPD and was voted Compensation and Benefits Professional of the year for 2009 by Employee Benefits magazine.